The Blue Jays have settled on deals with their two most notable arbitration-eligible players. Corner outfielder Teoscar Hernández will receive $10.65MM, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN (Twitter link); first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is in line for $7.9MM, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (on Twitter).
Hernández’s deal comes in narrowly above the $10MM projection of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz. It’s a notable jump from last season’s $4.325MM salary, reflecting the excellent season the right-handed hitter just posted. Hernández hit .296/.346/.524 with 32 home runs and 12 stolen bases in 595 plate appearances last year. He’ll be arbitration-eligible one final time next winter before hitting free agency over the 2023-24 offseason.
Guerrero’s salary is an exact match for Swartz’s projection. It’s the 23-year-old’s first year of arbitration, and he lands his first significant payday after finishing as the AL MVP runner-up. Guerrero hit an incredible .311/.401/.601 with 48 homers over 698 plate appearances this past season, emerging as the kind of impact hitter the Toronto fanbase had been hoping for when Guerrero was the sport’s top prospect. He owns a career .289/.367/.517 line and remains under control through 2025 after qualifying for arbitration early via the Super Two process.
Toronto also agreed to a two-year deal to buy out Matt Chapman’s final couple seasons of arbitration this afternoon. That brings the Jays’ projected payroll to around $171MM, in the estimation of Jason Martinez of Roster Resource.
They should try and give Vlad g 17 years $400 mil see if he takes. Could pay $23 million a year so wouldn’t ruin the jays payroll and could afford other top talent. Don’t know if he’d take though.
I feel like if you bumped that up to $500 million, he may bite.
Zero chance he takes that contract. Too long and a huge underpay.
My guess is around 12 years at $450m would be his floor. But he will likely go to free agency since he doesn’t need the safety net of an early extension.
Vladdy’s not signing for 23 a year. More like 43 per if anything
I know it wouldn’t be popular with many fans, but if Vlad demands 40 – 50 M a season, trade him for a teams top five prospects before he becomes a free agent.. Baseball is a team sport – not an individual sport and players that demand high salaries, knowing it will handicap the team for years should be removed from the team sooner – not later. The Jays are in a unique situation where their payroll isn’t what is paid in reality. The exchange rate dictates how high their payroll is, since every player is paid in US funds – NOT Canadian and a forty million contract equals 55 million a year. The team consists of 26 players – not four or five and fans wouldn’t like it, but baseball has restrictions that many teams have exceeded and watched bad contracts handicap them for years, preventing them from improving.
Wisdom shared. You literally have no idea what you are talking about. The exchange rate plays little to no role in dictating the Jays payroll. Their owner is the richest in baseball if I’m not mistaken. $150m-$200m is chump change to them. Especially when they own the exclusive broadcast rights too.
I only tell it like it is and if you don’t believe what I wrote, simple solution and prove me wrong. Contact Rogers and ask if they pay in Canadian funds. That question was asked from 1977 to the present and the same answer was given, US dollars, making your comment uninformed and contentious.
Yes but they also probably charge more for tickets to make up for exchange
Wisdom shared they pay their players in US dollars. Was not debating you on that. I do know the Jays purchases large sums of US currency each year to take away some of the currency risk. I was challenging your comments about the exchange rate dictating the payroll. During the early to mid 2000’s when the exchange rate was almost at par, the Jays were not spending like the Red Sox and Yankees as your comments suggest. The biggest factor here is that Shapiro actual has the ear of Rogers and the business sense to explain that a winning club costs money but Rogers will earn that back through ticket sales and tv revenue. It’s laughable you think the Jays payroll is dictated only by one factor (exchange rate)
40m as of right now is 50m not 55 but you do have a valid point .
As well , is a 1B no matter how good worth 40m USD per year? He would have to put up 5 War a year for the life of the contract . Not easy to do for anyone let alone a 1B .
Every owner has their limit.
Truth is Wisdom, Rogers could carry a $500M usd payroll if they wanted to. Money is absolutely no issue to them. If it were, they would not be spending between $175M and $200M usd now. Tickets are more expensive up here, just as beer, food, merchandise, parking, etc. are. Rogers also owns the building, and if they ever decided to sell the property to a developer, it would go for billions. It is prime land by the waterfront in the 2nd most expensive housing market in North America.
Sure they could deal him for prospects, but trust me, it won’t be because he wants $40M to $50M usd and they don’t feel they can afford it.
Are you sure tickets are more expensive in Toronto? A google says you can get 500 level tickets for $18 CAD, and during the game today they were advertising a ticket package of $59 CAD for 12 games.
Meanwhile the cheapest seat to Sacramento River Cats AAA games is $23 USD pre-fees. I settled for going seatless on the grass beyond the outfield, which is nominally $14 but still $22 after the fees. That’s $28 CAD with the exchange rate for the cheapest AAA baseball option. And if I wanted to sit behind home plate at Oracle Park, I’d probably need to sell my car.
Chin,
Seriously, Shapiro had to explain to Rogers that if you build a winning ball club, You’ll show a profit???
Hmmm makes you wonder how Rogers got to be where they are.
Good thing all the dumbest fans wanted vladdy up for that one year where he was fat and out of shape to burn a year of service time. Shoulda held him down that entire year till he ate some salad. Now the window is one year closer to closing. If you ever hear any fans complaining about service time and the player comes up and struggles just punch that fans face in. Maybe there will be less people saying stupid stuff less often.
You literally say the same dumb thing all the time.
Your whole premise is 100% dependant on the notion that Vlad’s first year was a complete lost cause, that he didn’t learn anything from his struggles or weight issues.
The more likely case is those struggles and access to better coaches and nutritionist at the major league level is the reason he had the season in 2021 that he did.
And it’s not like he wasn’t entertaining, nor is it like he was actually terrible enough to hurt the team. It would’ve been a crime against baseball to rob fans of enjoying a year of his career by stashing him in the minors.
17 years tells us all your IQ isn’t the highest….
The increases of four signed Blue Jays arb cases today
Hernández
Biggio
Guerrero Jr
Chapman
The aggregate increases of $3..4 Million increase including the Equal split of Chapman’s bonus.
The salary 2022 shown in Cots Contracts for the Blue Jays prior to above arb settlements was $161.5 Million, thus the Jays is $165 Million .
wow that was hard to read.
Which taking in to account inflation, is still lower than their record salary of 2017.
In order to get cost certainty, they should attempt to reach an agreement with Vlad and Bo similar to what they did with Chapman: Agree to a contract for the rest of their arbitration years. Offer them guaranteed pay for slightly less money than they would get going to arbitration the next 3 years.
Bottom line, in order to keep Bo and Vlad beyond their arbitration years is going to mean that others have to go: Teoscar and Gurriel will have to be replaced as they will not be able to afford them if they give 400m to vlad and 250m to Bo or whatever it might be. The one thing that will work in their favor is that they will have Ryu’s 20m and Springers 25m and Grichuks 10m coming off the books over the next 3 years. The Jays need their top 3 prospects to become very productive, and cheaper alternatives in order to afford Bo and Vlad.
I wouldn’t do that unless they gave up a year of free agency
Springer is off the books in 5 years, the other two you are correct plus the swing pitcher , Stripling who is about to earn -$3.79 Million.
For a total of $34 Million.
That would cover the annual cost of either Bichette or Guerrero.
Bichette is no Correa, maybe closer to a Seager,who is a better player defensively than Bichette.
Freeman and Guerrero Jr , are comparable , in the same position, Freeman is better defensively.
Vlad needs to prove he can stay in shape and repeat last year first. Bo needs to prove he can stay healthy regularly and keep his defense on track first. Otherwise you’re buying high coming off their best seasons without seeing proof they’ll keep it up.
you think Shapiro and Atkins don’t think about this stuff on a daily basis. i swear, commenters on here are so stupid that they think the actual front office of a baseball team doesn’t look at all avenues on how to allocate future funds for their team. And in no way would they EVER read the useless and laughable comments on this or any other website that fans post on.
Clarification for monies for National Tv and Streaming totals $70 Million USD per annum for the length of the new Tv Contract plus the Regional Tv contracts which the average for 2022 season is projected at $50 Million USD.
Also eqch team receives monies per annum for MBLAM of $15 Million USD per annum.
Add the licensing revenue totaling an additional $10 million USD per team.
Should you aggregate the numbers as the foundation . Jays receive $145 Million in USD before the gate ,revenue,, advertising , Blue Jays individual licensing l revenue , private box revenue will have to be greater than $150 Million Cdn to cover the rest of costs
Look at the revenue ofLiberty Media who owned the Atlanta Braves as a comparison. Google 2021 Revenue , so that actually understand how much the Jays can actually earn in revenue and the actual net profit .
This will give the readers an actual determination, instead of guessing .
This is what the Jays could easily afford for a Guerrero and Bichette. Similar to what Texas paid for Seagar and Semien. Or what Padres paid for Tatis, Bichette is not better than Tatis.
Either way Vlad is a Jay for at the very very least 4 more years then depending how the team is doing you consider trading him his final 1.5 or 2 years if he is unwilling to sign or it’s just to high of an ask. That way you get a few prices back
I’d trade you two David Prices right now for one Vlad Jr.